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Berners-Lee: Protect Consumers From Online Tracking
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-03-17
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The man who gave the world the World Wide Web would give its users much more protection from tracking than they have today.
 | | Berners-Lee: Protect Consumers From Online Tracking |  |
Tim Berners-Lee got this whole graphical Internet thing going over a decade ago. It started off as a way for scientists to share images as well as text, and quickly grew beyond that beginning.
But Berners-Lee isn't in favor of where some want to take the Web today. He told the BBC he would dump an Internet provider that tracked his usage and served up ads against it, as he fears the information would be readily misused:
"I want to know if I look up a whole lot of books about some form of cancer that that's not going to get to my insurance company and I'm going to find my insurance premium is going to go up by 5% because they've figured I'm looking at those books," he said.
In the UK, this issue became a bigger deal when a tracking firm called Phorm began getting deals with Internet providers Talk Talk, BT, and Virgin. While Talk Talk will make Phorm an opt-in service, the BBC said the other two companies have not decided on opt-in or opt-out.
Berners-Lee also made the remark that his data and browsing history belonged to him, and companies should be willing to negotiate for it. Similar ideas in the form of valuing online attention form the core of what AttentionTrust wants to accomplish.
Though the Web's progenitor and Attention Trust seem to be on the same side, it's unlikely Berners-Lee would endorse it, as he has a habit of not doing so with any sites or technology products.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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